TESTING OF A PRESIDENT: THE PRESIDENT

TESTING OF A PRESIDENT: THE PRESIDENT; CLINTON TESTIMONY BEFORE GRAND JURY IS BEING DISCUSSED

By JOHN M. BRODER and STEPHEN LABATON

Published: March 11, 1998

WASHINGTON, March 10—
President Clinton's top lawyer and prosecutors investigating the Monica S. Lewinsky matter have recently opened discussions over whether Mr. Clinton would provide grand jury testimony, a senior Administration official and a lawyer involved in the inquiry said today.

The contact between the President's lawyer, David E. Kendall, and prosecutors appears not to have resulted yet in any agreement over the timing or scope of the President's testimony.

The discussions suggest that the Whitewater independent counsel, Kenneth W. Starr, could complete the fact-finding phase of the Lewinsky inquiry within the next few weeks, since Mr. Clinton would be one of the final witnesses to testify. Negotiations with Ms. Lewinsky's lawyers over her providing testimony under a grant of immunity broke down weeks ago.

There are significant political and legal calculations on both sides. The President might be reluctant to refuse a request by Mr. Starr that he testify in the Lewinsky case because it would leave the impression that he had something to hide.

Testifying poses risks, however. Mr. Clinton could be caught by surprise -- as he was in the Paula Jones deposition, in which he was asked for the first time about Ms. Lewinsky.

Although Mr. Starr could simply subpoena the President, rather than try to negotiate his testimony, doing so might make him appear overly aggressive and might prompt the President to claim that constitutional protections shield him from such inquiries and refuse to answer questions, a step that could lead to a protracted court battle that would delay Mr. Starr's inquiry by months.

At least two senior White House aides -- Bruce R. Lindsey, the deputy counsel, and Sidney Blumenthal, a communications adviser -- have refused to answer some of Mr. Starr's questions before the grand jury, citing the President's executive privilege to confidential conversations with his staff.

Michael D. McCurry, the White House spokesman, said he was not aware of the details of talks between Mr. Kendall and the independent counsel's office.

However, he said, ''In the past, when Mr. Starr wanted to talk to the President they have worked out amicable terms to do so.''

Lawyers in Mr. Starr's office declined to comment on whether they had engaged in discussions over the President's grand jury testimony.

Mr. Clinton said shortly after the Lewinsky accusations surfaced in January that he and his staff would cooperate in the investigation. He said he would like to clear up questions raised by the Lewinsky inquiry ''sooner rather than later.''

The President has said very little about his relationship with Ms. Lewinsky. She has told friends that she had a sexual affair with the Presided, but said there was no sexual relationship in an affidavit for the Paula Corbin Jones sexual misconduct lawsuit, according to lawyers involved in the case. Mr. Clinton vigorously denied having sexual relations with Ms. Lewinsky or encouraging her to lie about it.

Mr. Starr and his predecessor, Robert B. Fiske Jr., have taken the President's testimony under oath at the White House on several previous occasions on a variety of Whitewater-related matters. Portions of that testimony were later read to grand jurors.

Mr. Starr and Mr. Fiske have also questioned Hillary Rodham Clinton at the White House about the Clintons' business affairs in Arkansas, although once, in early 1996, Mr. Starr ordered Mrs. Clinton to appear before a grand jury in Washington. Her appearance was demanded after a copy of some of the billing records from her old law firm mysteriously surfaced in the residence of the White House nearly two years after they were first subpoenaed.

At the Federal courthouse here today, prosecutors questioned Kathleen Willey, a former White House volunteer, about an alleged 1993 Oval Office sexual encounter with President Clinton.

Unlike most previous grand jury witnesses, Ms. Willey arrived at the courthouse and departed with the prosecutors, an apparent sign that she is cooperating with the Government. She was accompanied by her son, John Patrick Willey, 25, who cryptically identified himself to reporters as ''the sausage king of Chicago.'' He did not elaborate.

Ms. Willey did not speak to reporters after her four-hour grand jury appearance, and her lawyer, Daniel A. Gecker of Richmond, did not return telephone calls seeking comment.

Citing Ms. Willey's appearance, defenders of the President today raised new questions about how Mr. Starr is conducting the investigation.

Lawyers and other members of Mr. Clinton's defense, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Ms. Willey's testimony was evidence of collusion between Mr. Starr and Ms. Jones's legal team. They said that Mr. Starr's questioning of witnesses in the Jones lawsuit indicated that the independent counsel's office had been shadowing the footsteps of Ms. Jones's lawyers in trying to establish a record of sexual misconduct and obstruction of justice by the President and his agents.

Lawyers in Mr. Starr's office have said they have not cooperated with Ms. Jones's lawyers. They have said that the first point of intersection of their long-running Whitewater investigation with the Jones lawsuit came in mid-January, when they became aware of accusations that Mr. Clinton had a liaison with Ms. Lewinsky and encouraged her to lie about it. Their suspicions were heightened by the involvement of Vernon E. Jordan Jr. in helping find Ms. Lewinsky a job at the time when she had been named a witness in the Jones lawsuit.

Mr. Jordan had helped another friend of the President's, Webster L. Hubbell, to find employment when he was in legal difficulty arising from his legal work in Little Rock, Ark.